Harry Nelson Atwood (November 15, 1883 – July 14, 1967) was an American pioneer aviator, engineer and inventor.

Biography

Atwood was born on November 15, 1883. He trained at the Wright Flying School at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, Ohio, with fellow students Thomas D. Milling, Calbraith Perry Rodgers and Henry H. Arnold. Within three months of his first lesson he flew a record-breaking 576 miles (927 km) from Boston to Washington, DC, and on July 14, 1911, landed on the White House lawn. A prize of $10,000 was offered to Atwood to fly between Chicago and Milwaukee on August 10. Between August 14, 1911 and August 25, 1911 he flew 1,256 miles (2,021 km) from St. Louis to New York, making 11 stops and spending 28 hours 31 minutes in the air. Atwood funded his flying activities with the sale of two different electric meter designs to General Electric.

Aviation career

Straight out of flight school in May 1911, Atwood became the chief flight instructor for William Starling Burgess whose Burgess Company built a variety of airplanes, including licensed Wright aircraft between 1911 and 1913. In 1912, Atwood signed with the General Aviation Corporation for three years. The company purchased an old race track in Saugus, Massachusetts and converted it into an airfield, which they named after Atwood. Atwood served as the chief instructor of the company's flight instruction school there from the time it opened until he quit on June 10, 1912 because he could make more money in exhibition flights and because he was disenchanted with fellow instructor Arch Freeman. On May 31, 1912, Atwood made the first airmail delivery in New England. He flew about five miles (8 km) from Atwood Park to the Lynn, Massachusetts Town Commons where he dropped a sack of mail from the plane. The sack was then retrieved by a Lynn postal employee and driven to the post office.